The Bird of Flame and the Sprite of Spring
by ColdGoldLazarus
Summary: She should have been able to resist the urge to check. She had to have been crazy to think she could. Fantasia 2000, Firebird Suite, Twoshot
1. Imprisonment and Relief

I was curious.

I remembered all too well what had happened, the last time I had been curious.

I was still ashamed of myself.

I still felt, in the peaceful, quiet moments in the very early morning, the same regret, the same devastation I had felt upon seeing the consequences of my failure.

I should have been able to resist the urge to check.

I had to have been crazy to think I could.

The mountain was now much more friendly now, now that I had realized the true limits of my power, but it still had a lingering feeling of death and evil, masked underneath the more benign first impressions I got. This feeling was only intensified the closer I got to the Crater's rim. I flowed along silently, steadily now, but I felt a part of me wilt inside, the part that remembered my last journey up this slope.

But I pushed down my fears and kept going. I needed to know.

And then I reached the Rim. I dared not even consider going_ inside_ the Crater, and the view from here was quite fine by me. Down there, in the very middle, there it was. A black lump, like a sphere had been melted and fused to the bottom. From here, it looked tiny. I knew that that was an illusion; the last time I had come this way, I had come much closer to the object, and it had been twice my height.

And I wasn't going to come that close to it this time.

My curiosity satisfied, I let myself slide down the outside slope again, floating downwards in relief.

The Firebird was once more trapped.

I just hoped it would stay that way.


	2. Transformation and Fear

**A/N: This will most likely lose me all of the people that liked the first part, but note that I don't like this half either, I didn't realize there WOULD be a second half until I was halfway through writing it, and I hate the ending too. My alpologies for weirdness**

I slept, a coat of hardened stone surrounding me, cocooning me. I had dreams, mostly of the surrounding countryside, of abstract patterns and shapes, or of flames and darkness, and once, just once, of her.

In the dream, I was a powerful tower, a raging inferno, an unstoppable force, and I was almost… enjoying it. I normally felt nothing, experienced no emotion as I killed endlessly, but in the dream, I was having fun watching everything around me burn. I moved slowly but steadily through a forest in my flowing, snakelike form, the trees bursting into flame.

Ahead of me rushed a small, lithe green form, and I somehow felt the need to catch it, like it was vitally important to do so before something -anything- bad happened. I focused on it, rushing forth, now irritated at the trees that slowed me down.

Several times it would be nearly in my grasp, but then somehow escape. I was frustrated and worried, now increasingly sure that some sort of doom would befall me if I failed. I was getting desperate, distracted, receiving countless sensations from all over, as my flames were now spread all across the horizon. But then finally I got a lucky break; the figure had climbed to the top of a surviving tree trunk. I came up behind it, rising up, changing to my true form, ready to finally capture it.

As I snapped forward to strike; I caught a single, my last glimpse of her. She wore a terrified expression, eyes wide in fear, her mouth open in shock. Her dark green hair, turned red in my baleful light, flew everywhere from the winds rising off of my figure. Then even more miraculously, she closed her eyes and mouth, her expression turning from fear to peace.

Then I struck.

I had been hoping to simply hold her, wait for whatever important event was to happen, but I immediately realized I had made a mistake; she screamed, and I could feel her wither and burn inside of me, until there was nothing left but ashes. I wasn't sure what I felt. Relief that my mission was complete? No. Remorse for my actions? No. Shame or pride, happiness or sadness? No.

I felt angry, at myself, at her, and most of all, at the landscape I now surveyed. There was nothing but ashes.

**1111**

And that was where the dream had ended.

I now felt things. Not physically, thanks to the sense-deadening stone shell that imprisoned me, but emotionally. I found I was often wishful. I wished I could escape from my prison, wished I could feel the world, wished I could watch as my infernos burnt all.

But more than any of that, I wished to know the truth of my dream. Had it been a dream? The experiences were too vivid for that, but the actual sequence had been so surreal… And that brought me to another question: If it was real, did that mean I really had killed another creature? I would have normally not cared, but it had conveyed such _emotion,_ that I couldn't help but wonder if it had thought as I do now.

I found myself wishing again; that my prison didn't restrict my movements so thoroughly, so that I could bury my head in my wings and try to think of other things.

There had been nothing but ashes.

**1111**

I woke again from an abstract dream to the sound of stone being dislodged and then hitting the ground with a crack. More and more dislodged, until it was a positive torrent of sound.

Sound! I realized with a start that my head was free, and I opened my eyes, looking around. I was in the middle of a massive stone bowl, the edges rising hundreds of feet above me. I craned my neck, looking at the bright blue sky, the shining sun, and felt the rustle of a light breeze ruffle my flames.

How was this possible?

I looked around and soon saw the cause of my freedom: an elk was standing to one side, dwarfed by my bulk but looking fearless. As I watched, it came close to my still-clad left wing, and breathed on it.

A crack formed in the stone, then another, and soon there was a large pile of rock at the base of my flaming, glowing, smoking, _free_ appendage. I shook it out, adjusting to the sensation of being able to move once more, then realized I had nearly killed the Elk with it. Before that dream, if this had happened then, I wouldn't have bothered, and finished the job, but now I saw with different eyes. I slid away, watching the Elk for any reaction.

It looked up at me, and it's calm blue eyes met my flaming orange orbs. I found I was riveted to the spot, unable to move, as some sort of communication passed between us. No words were spoken, for neither of us could speak, but I still understood clearly the message in it's gaze.

_You are unsure of yourself, of your past actions and future plans, and are confused by your own thoughts and feelings…_ It seemed to say. I only nodded in response.

_This will only worsen with time._

_What?_ I began to come closer, growing ever taller, my menacing light turning him red. Had it woken me up just to tell me this? I was furious.

_Just wait,_ It told me with its eyes. I slowly backed away, though my anger was not completely satisfied.

Then it began to breathe again, blowing a strong gale from its nose and mouth. A whirlwind formed around me, and every time I tried to escape, I was buffeted back by the unexpectedly strong wind. I had been tricked!

The wind was starting to have other effects. My flames were starting to go out, my wings were beginning to harden once more, and I was shrinking. Jus when I thought it would never end, the winds finally cleared, and I remained there, now a fraction of my former size, my head now level with the Elk's back.

I rushed forth, ready to exact my revenge for this embarrassment, when it breathed another blast, this time aimed directly at my head. I kept pushing forward, not caring that lava and flame were streaming off the sides of my face, not noticing that the gale was altering my very appearance.

Then the wind stopped.

I was still halfway across the crater from the Elk, but I decided to give up trying to reach it. I chose to ignore it, instead checking to make sure my powers and abilities were still intact.

To my surprise and anger, when I swept a wing to one side, a ribbon of flame did not follow it as it usually did; instead a bright beam of heat and light shot forth from the tip. I frowned, glaring at the Elk. Or rather, where the elk had used to be. It now stood directly beside me, watching with those infuriatingly calm eyes.

"What did you do to me? What did you do to me?" I yelled, beating it's flank with one hand, screaming with frustration and confusion. It simply looked at me; and I realized with a start, covering my mouth with my hands. Yes, a mouth, with lips and teeth instead of a beak. Yes, hands with fingers and thumbs, as opposed to the knobby joints atop my wings.

What had the creature done to me?

**1111**

The Sprite of Spring was sitting contentedly in the middle of a forest clearing, eyes closed, taking in the warmth of the sun, hearing the chirping of birds, the scratching of insects. Everything was peaceful here, and she was happy.

But the Elk had been gone a long time. He usually was rarely where she was not; the two parting was odd and the two parting for so long was nearly unthinkable.

She stood up, frowning, a figurative shadow passing over her heart. Had something bad happened? She quickly flew up, dodging tree branches, her face set in an unusual amount of worry and concentration. She soon cleared the tops of the trees and hovered there, looking around. There was no sign of her guide, but there was nothing to indicate some bad event, either. The sky was blue, the sun was out, and a red streak of flame was flying upwards out of the volcano.

Wait, what?

The Sprite stared in horror at the narrow column of fire that now stood over everything like some malicious sentinel. "Not again!" she whispered hoarsely, her legs giving way, tumbling back down to earth. She hit the ground and lay there, her mind filling with images, memories, of the last time the volcano's baleful inhabitant had been awakened. She remembered the sight of the firebird's orange, flaming eyes as it had descended upon her, killing her.

She remembered the sight of the forest in the aftermath, a wasteland of death. There had been nothing but ashes.

**1111**

A scream, masculine in nature, rang through the forest, followed by another, more feminine one.

"You ARE real! I'm sorry! I'm sorry!"

Spring panicked, crawling backwards as fast as she could, scrambling to stand up, preparing for some imminent deathblow, frightened tears streaming unbidden from her pale yellow eyes. It took her several moments to realize that the tall, flaming figure before her was not the same as the one that had caused so much destruction not too long before, though there were certainly some suspicious similarities.

Before her stood a brilliantly shining man, casting light all around him. As he advanced, Spring felt a wave of heat hit her, making her nauseous. The man had yellow skin that seemed to radiate light, and wore a golden, rippling cloak that further heightened that impression. He had a narrow face that looked like it had been carved; weathered, and large, indelicate hands. He had wavy, golden hair that fell just past his shoulders, and bright orange eyes that seemed to burn into her. Along his arms and atop his head, small yellow flames danced.

And he was smiling warmly, almost a bit apologetically, as he held out a hand to help her up.

Spring frowned at him suspiciously, but finally stretched out a hand of her own and allowed him to assist her.

"You remind me of someone else," she began coldly, keeping her distance. "Just who are you?"

The stranger looked at her, his eyes full of regret. "I suppose you could say I am that same person you knew, but…" he glanced ruefully at the Elk, who was watching from the edge of the clearing. "I'm also a bit different now. What's your name?"

"What's yours?" Spring was even more distrustful, never letting her eyes leave his, instinctively crouching down in a defensive manner.

The stranger thought a moment, then broke out into a smile. "Call me Summer." He then turned around, taking in the trees and plants, suddenly radiant. Nothing here was dead.

Here, now, there was everything _but_ ashes.


End file.
